One eminent commentator about Afghanistan said recently that the word was ‘we don’t want another Congo’: the implication being that the fighting in the Congo over resources served a brutal reminder about what potential for mayhem lies under the ground in Afghanistan, surrounded as it is by such resource-hungry neighbours. And to underline the point on the same day as The Guardian’s REM report appeared so did acres of coverage about the huge power black-out across India: all the new technology powered by REM was putting unsustainable demand on India’s electricity supplies.

A US Geological Survey conducted between 2009-2011 in Afghanistan discovered significant amounts of copper, iron-ore, gold, lithium, REM, as well as coal, oil and gas, prompting a conservative value of the combined resources at $3trillion.